VIENNA — A potential breakthrough was reported in the Iranian nuclear talks, although diplomats indicated that it is premature to say a historic deal has been finalized.
The Associated Press reported that a provisional agreement could be ready Sunday, and announced Monday. But the State Department and the Iranian delegation shot that report down, saying more work lies ahead.
“We have never speculated about the timing of anything during these negotiations, and we’re certainly not going to start now — especially given the fact that major issues remain to be resolved in these talks,” said a senior State Department official.
An Iranian official in Vienna called it “too optimistic” to predict a deal could be completed by the end of the day Sunday.
“Even if an agreement is finalized, it will take hours to check and clean up all the paperwork,” the official said. “It only requires political will at this point.”
But the Iranian suggested that a draft agreement is in the works.
“We are working hard, but a deal tonight is simply logistically impossible,” the official said. “This is a 100-page document after all.”
Nevertheless, Iran’s negotiations with six world powers — the United States, France, Britain, China, Russia and Germany — appear to be nearing the end.
After spending Saturday in talks that stretched over almost 15 hours, continuing past midnight, Secretary of State John F. Kerry was in a relaxed mood. He attended a late-morning Mass at the historic St. Stephens Cathedral in the center of Vienna, then acted like a tourist.
He took a stroll to the Mozarthaus, one of the last apartments where the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lived in Vienna, and returned to the Coburg Palace hotel where the talks are being held to meet with members of the U.S. negotiating team. During most of the 16 days of negotiations, Kerry has started his meetings early in the morning and continued through the day. His casual schedule and late start on Sunday suggest the hard work is largely behind him.
“I think we're getting to some real decisions,” Kerry said as he left the hotel in the morning. “So I will say, because we have a few tough things to do, I remain hopeful. Hopeful.”
The talks had a June 30 deadline but have been extended three times, most recently on Friday. The latest deadline ends at midnight Monday, giving the diplomats another day and a half to sort out their final areas of disagreement, primarily involving United Nations sanctions, an eventual end to an embargo on conventional arms, and the scope of access that international investigators will have to Iran’s nuclear and nuclear-related facilities.
Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif have met almost every day since arriving June 26, while the foreign ministers from the other countries have flown in and out of the Austrian capital.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was expected to arrive in Vienna later Sunday. If Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi joins him, that would send a strong signal that the diplomats are ready to announce the outcome of the talks.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius expressed a weary optimism that the end was near following a meeting Sunday with Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“I hope that we are finally entering the last phase of this negotiation,” Fabius told reporters massed outside the hotel where the talks are being held.
And the speaker of Iran’s parliament, Ali Larijani, said Sunday that the talks were moving forward and that a comprehensive agreement deal is the most likely outcome. According to some reports from Tehran, virtually all business has halted as people wait anxiously to learn whether they will get sanctions relief in exchange for accepting restrictions and monitoring of the country’s nuclear program to ensure the nation isn’t trying to develop nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile, in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized what he called a “parade of concessions” to Iran at the Vienna talks, even as Iranian leaders and protesters have been making strident statements against the United States and its ally, Israel. His remarks were in response to Iran’s supreme leader saying Saturday that the United States was the embodiment of global arrogance and that Iranians would continue to fight it even if a nuclear agreement is reached.
“Iran does not hide its intention to continue its murderous aggression even against those with whom it is negotiating,” Netanyahu said in his weekly cabinet meeting. “Perhaps there is someone among the great powers who is prepared to capitulate to this reality that Iran is dictating, which includes its unending calls for the destruction of Israel. We will not pay the price for this.”
Ruth Eglash in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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